Future of Today's Retail

 All will have an impact, demise no, efficiency yes. 

The future of retail: Do robots, A.I., and AR spell demise for stores?   By Jeremy Kaplan, in DigitalTrends

A robot started prowling the aisles at my local Stop & Shop grocery store a few months ago, a tall, thin drink of water with big, ridiculous googly eyes at the top of its 7-foot-tall frame. Called Marty, the 140-pound robot was first rolled out in 2019 and is continuing to expand his empire, finally reaching the Long Island store I’ve been frequenting. Huzzah?

Marty spots spills and other hazards, and … well, that’s it. Sure, “cleanup on aisle nine” just got more interesting, but his capabilities are limited. Nice try, guys.

Meanwhile, Amazon Go stores are pioneering retail at a whole different level, automatically detecting you as your car enters the parking lot, leaning on A.I. to determine whether you’re merely eyeing the aioli or purchasing those potatoes, and automagically charging your credit card as you stroll through the exits — no swipe required. Retail today is nothing like the shopping malls of yesterday, and the future of retail is headed in a new direction entirely.

Today: What’s in your cart? Amazon knows

The retail world was prepared to be upset by beacons a few years ago. Using tiny Bluetooth sensors from Apple, Kontakt, Estimote, BlueSense and others, retailers were reportedly going to track our progress down the aisle and inundate us with offers, sensing us dawdling over the tie rack. “Buy this right now and I’ll give you 10% off!” That concept clearly hasn’t soared, yet technology has poured into retail at an unprecedented pace.

Consider those Amazon Go stores. How exactly do they know what you’re doing in the store, and determine what’s in your basket and what you need to pay for? Do cameras simply look over your shoulder and record what goes in the cart? .... ' 

NRF on Retail Customer Reaction to Technology

Some very useful anylyses of NRF surveys:

Robot in the Room  Survey analysis by National Retail Foundation (NRF)

Consumers’ choices in term of where, how and why they buy are redefining retail and creating a new playbook for the industry. NRF’s Consumer View is a recurring look at the consumer forces that are shaping retail.

For the Summer 2019 Consumer View, NRF surveyed consumers to understand the role technology plays in their shopping decisions. More than three out of five consumers recognize the role retailer investments in technology have played in improving their experience across online, stores and mobile. They're also eager to embrace new solutions that will further streamline how they browse and buy.

Click through the latest report to see what today’s shoppers view as a "must have" when it comes to retail technologies and how they feel about emerging innovations like social shopping, voice assistants and augmented reality.   ..... "

NRF study says customers dig retail tech     by Matthew Stern in RetailWire   with expert comment.

Customers are finding that retail technology is making the shopping experience better on mobile, in stores and online, according to a new study by the National Retail Federation (NRF).

The study found that 80 percent of consumers believe retail technologies and innovations have improved their online shopping experience, as reported in Just Style. Sixty-six percent said that technology improved their in-store experience and 63 percent said that it had improved their experience shopping via mobile. Technologies that indicate if a product is in-stock, aid in price comparison, provide reviews, make finding products easier and let people try out products before they buy them all generate significant interest from consumers. Solutions that remove the uncertainty from shopping are major drivers in customers selecting retailers and brands.

Between 80 and 90 percent of respondents rated in-app store navigation, smart dressing rooms, augmented reality, virtual fit and virtual reality as retail solutions they would try again. .... " 

Alberson's Wants Frictionless with Microsoft

Another partnership between retail grocery and tech.

Albertsons eyes ‘frictionless’ grocery shopping
Cloud services pact with Microsoft to power omnichannel strategy
By Russell Redman in Supermarketnews

Albertsons Cos. and Microsoft Corp. have officially announced a wide-ranging technology partnership to create a seamless multichannel shopping experience for the grocer’s customers and a more productive environment for its employees.

News of the alliance emerged nearly a month ago, but on Friday the two companies shed more light on what they envision with the deal.

Related: Albertsons becomes latest Microsoft retail partner

At the core of the agreement, Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons will make Microsoft Azure its preferred cloud computing platform for immediate and long-term efforts to “digitally transform” customer interactions, sharpen operations and deliver better products and services, the companies said. That includes exploring how to use computer vision, connected sensors and other artificial intelligence technology — via Microsoft’s Azure AI and Azure Cognitive Services — to reduce “friction” for shoppers. .... "

Bring them Back to the Store?

More players in the space.

Retail Technology Aims to Bring Customers Back to the Store 
United Press International

By Nicholas Sakelaris in UPI

Two startups, Pensa Systems and Birdzi—both portfolio companies of venture firm RevTech—are developing technologies to enhance the in-store experience for customers, retailers, and manufacturers. The companies are working to give retailers the technology and tools to adapt in the "age of Amazon." Birdzi sends personalized discount offers to customers based on their previous buying habits, alerting them to sales, and even sending personalized coupons not advertised in the store. Birdzi's technology uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to produce custom offers and coupons based on what customers buy and when. Pensa Systems uses small autonomous drones to fly around stores and monitor inventory. Said Pensa Systems CEO Richard Schwartz, "This is really the next step in the Internet of Things, where the sensor gets around by itself autonomously, instead of having thousands of sensors on the shelves."  ... "

Retail and AI

Thoughts from NRF.    How technologies of many kind will improve shopping.

Tech lets shoppers say ‘Optimize Me’ when ordering groceries   by Al McClain in Retailwire and further expert opinion.

The line between digital and physical shopping continues to get fuzzier.

At NRF’s “Big Show” last week, Cisco showcased a concept called “Optimize Me” within its fictitious Stop, Shop & Go store.

Rather than the shopper buying everything online and picking it up in store (BOPIS), this scenario allows the shopper to save items in a grocer’s smartphone app as they go about their regular activities. They add items to a virtual shopping list as they think of what they need and then select “optimize me” within the app when they are ready to head to the store.

Using artificial intelligence (AI) technology, items purchased before and marked as favorites in the shopper’s profile are picked by store associates and placed at a designated in-store pickup area, while those products never purchased before remain in the shopping list. For those, customers go to the shelf to browse and select the items they prefer. The physical locations of these items are displayed on the shopper’s smartphone via a store map using location-based services. The customer still goes through the purchase process at the store (scan and go, self-checkout, traditional register, etc.), but they don’t have to trek through the store to pick up refill items.  ... "

How is Amazon Changing Whole Foods?

Announcements not very remarkable, would like to see more technology in store,  that supports the idea of fresh,  integration of ingredients, cooking and innovation. How about robotic virtual and physical assembly of fresh recipes.  Integrate AI creativity?  Many possibilities.   How can you get tech to help with creative choices?  How about a deeper linking of their Alexa capabilities?

Amazon Just Announced How It's Changing Whole Foods.
A new era begins with this sentence: "Starting Monday, Whole Foods Market will offer lower prices."   By Bill Murphy Jr. in Inc.

Here are the changes that are coming to a Whole Foods near you, in greater detail. In short, they're cutting prices across the board -- and as many have predicted, will ultimately be adding more benefits for Amazon Prime members. .... "

First, Amazon said it would cut prices immediately on many products, including: "bananas, organic avocados, organic large brown eggs, organic responsibly farmed salmon and tilapia, organic baby kale and baby lettuce, animal-welfare-rated 85 percent lean ground beef, creamy and crunchy almond butter, organic Gala and Fuji apples, organic rotisserie chicken, 365 Everyday Value organic butter, and much more."

Second, "after certain technical integration work is complete, Amazon Prime will become Whole Foods Market's customer rewards program, providing Prime members with special savings and other in-store benefits."

Next, Whole Foods Market's private label products "will be available through Amazon.com, AmazonFresh, Prime Pantry, and Prime Now." ....  "

More on Tacobots, the future of ordering Tacos.

Kroger Merges in-store, Online Shopping

From FMI Smartech: 

Kroger turns to Tech to merge in-store, online shopping
Kroger strives to create an in-store shopping experience that is similar to online shopping, tapping technology including infrared sensors, data algorithms, personalized mobile apps and e-commerce offerings including in-store pickup and delivery in an effort to make wait times shorter and foster an interactive shopping trip, according to CIO Chris Hjelm. Next up, the nation's largest supermarket will test smart shelves that can sense where shoppers are walking and send relevant offers to their mobile devices.

In The Wall Street Journal (Tiered subscription Model)

Locating People in the Wild

Located beacons can detect people's mobile IDs in store and even on the street.  A powerful move to establish consumer journey.  I had heard of related methods some time ago, by testing and ID'ing people just walking into a store.

Programmatic Advertisers Get Even More Precise Consumer Location Data With New Pact   By  Kate Kay  In Adage.

Driverless Carts

More on driverless carts in retailwire.  And a discussion.   Maybe its not the smart of carts that is important, but the inconvenience.

A Virtual Reality Department Store

Hardly first.  What this is depends in part on the definition of VR.  I have seen and even helped build virtual stores in virtual worlds and in laboratory settings.  But yes, we are close to the needed hardware and software to make it a reality.   But is the interface useful beyond a gimmick?   eBay and Myer Launch first VR Store.

This Blog and the Future of the Supermarket

A nicely done article in Epicurious on technology and the supermarket.  Also speculation about what form the market will take in the future.  Proud to say that we experimented with all the ideas presented there in our innovation centers. .  And have been written about them in this blog over the last fifteen years.  From mentions to considerable experimental detail.

We worked with many global retailers, and with a number of technology vendors, large and small.  I have been  also been brought into a number of studies of market technology since.  You can search away here, or if you need help, contact me and I can point out where a topic has been covered.   Have something to input?  Let me know.

Role of the Futurist in Retail

On the role of the futurist in retail and grocery.  A role I played in the innovation center when we looked for new ideas to test.

Freezers Reading your Emotions?

A retail freezer reading your emotions?  " ... Then there's a grocery store freezer case that can help you decide what you want to buy by reading your facial expression through cameras installed on top of it. It makes suggestions and shares ingredients and product information by using the glass door in front as a screen. ... "  

Digital Signage 2.0 Advances as Data Art

Good overview of the advance of digital signage.  We spent much time trying to understand its effective in store use.   Beyond retail grocery retail?  Perhaps.   " .... Their secret weapon is "data art," a new breed of highly creative data visualisation that uses business information to create real-time visual effects. So rather than resorting to a relatively dull amber ticker tape to communicate the latest stock market movements in real time, this data can now be presented in a far more engaging way through stunning visuals; for example — liquid gold to represent commodity fluctuations. ...  " 

Kroger's Technology Store Ideas

Kroger is building the grocery store of the future
by Kate Taylor ....

An overview of a number of technologies that Kroger is testing in real stores .... Have seen several of them myself.  They deserve a close look.

Kroger Tests Smart Shelves

We experimented with a number of related methods, combining, visual, sensory, sensing,  locating, effecting capabilities, linked to many kinds of data and analytics.  An Internet of Grocery things.  Will this make the physical shelf and aisle like the Internet?  Is that enough to bring the two venues together?    Here just a few technology examples, video at the link.

From the Cincinnati Enquirer:
Bringing the ‘info-richness of the Internet to ... in-store shopping’

Imagine a trip to Kroger where your grocery list tells you where the nearest item is – and sends you an alert if you accidentally pass it by on the shelf. ... Next, you need a small item like a spice and, just as you approach the crowded rack, the shelf lights up right under the whole (not ground) coriander you’re seeking.

Finally, you need gluten-free pasta and just as you approach the shelf with all the pastas, it highlights all the choices that meet your dietary needs. ... What you’ve just imagined is not that far off. Kroger is deep into experimenting with “smart shelf” technology at a store in Cold Spring. Company officials are ramping up the project and plan to test several additional applications.

“It’s not a question of ‘if;’ it’s a question of ‘when,’ ” said Christopher Hjelm, Kroger’s chief information officer.  ... "

Virtual Safari Storytelling in Jungle Jims

The question and piece below made me think of two things.  One,  the relationship to storytelling and the ability to do that in a virtual or video environment.    Second the unique Jungle Jim's grocery store in nearby Fairfield Ohio, which we visit weekly.

It was also a place I often took visitors from Europe, China and Japan when they came to our innovation center.   We have been going there for two decades.

And while I love what they have done,  always thought they could take the storytelling metaphor a bit further.  But perhaps that could be best done economically by doing it virtually?   Struck me once while watching manager Jim roaming on his Segway in tan uniform and pith helmet.

Why can't retailers enable us to go on a virtual 'safari' in their stores? 
Google has sent their cameras to Kenya's Samburu National Reserve to enable online browsers to experience a virtual "safari" from their computer via Street View. Why can't retailers create the same experience for their stores?    .... " 

The Grocery Automat

An ATM-style, robotic grocery store could be coming 
Des Moines, Iowa, might be the first market to test a standalone grocery store that is a cross between "an ATM and a very large vending machine," using a robotic system called Oasis24Seven, reports Ashlee Kieler of Consumerist. Grocery stores are increasing using technology to monitor shopping as well as tackle in-store theft. ... " 

This idea has been tried before in a number of drive-through layouts.   Examined this in 2006/07 in the form of the AutoCart Supercenter.    Note the system described here is a very large vending machine rather than a supercenter store.    The footprint is far smaller.  The Robotics in either case can be done today.  Stocking the larger form would seem to be far easier.

Shopping Cart Invented Today

Have done lots of experimental work with the humble cart/buggy/trolley.   Was also invented at the Piggly-Wiggly chain that claims to be the first modern process grocery store. (You walk around and make selections) Was invented on June 4 in 1937, some say.    Much more related interesting cultural trivia.

(Update) Consider how it has then evolved into the Smart Cart.  Which we studied for years.  That form has not yet succeeded.

Beacons and Retail Shelf Labels

We did much work with electronic shelf labels (ESL).  See the link below for much more.  Quite natural to connect them to the beacon idea as part of retail infrastructure.  Combines visual and data transmission..  In the RFID Journal:
Panasonic Adds Bluetooth Beacons to Electronic Shelf Labels
The Powershelf system, which uses inductive coupling to transmit power and data to wireless electronic labels and sensors, now includes beacons to enable stores to provide data to customers on their phone apps. ... "